Apocalypse Of Antibiotics: Everything You Need To Know To Win - Alternative View

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Apocalypse Of Antibiotics: Everything You Need To Know To Win - Alternative View
Apocalypse Of Antibiotics: Everything You Need To Know To Win - Alternative View

Video: Apocalypse Of Antibiotics: Everything You Need To Know To Win - Alternative View

Video: Apocalypse Of Antibiotics: Everything You Need To Know To Win - Alternative View
Video: The Antibiotic Apocalypse Explained 2024, March
Anonim

Antibiotic resistance, antibiotic resistance, has existed long before we started to get involved in this kind of treatment, which borders on drug addiction. The same genes that turn modern bacteria on to protect themselves from antibiotics were found in ancient bacteria frozen in Arctic permafrost 30,000 years ago.

These genes - which endowed ancient bacteria with resistance to some of our best antibiotics - did not offer them much of an advantage back then, as our ancestors were busy plucking mammoth flesh out of their teeth. But ever since we started throwing antibiotics for any real or imagined threat of infection, we've created the ideal conditions for resistance genes to become the hottest accessory for any self-respecting bacteria.

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Even the godfather of antibiotics, Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, warned of the risk of increased resistance back in 1946. He said that public demand would lead to overuse of drugs and bacteria to protect themselves. "A person who is reckless about penicillin treatment is responsible for the death of a person who will eventually die from infection with penicillin-resistant organisms," said Fleming. "I hope that evil can be prevented."

How bad is it?

Remember tuberculosis? It is unlikely, because few of us have seriously encountered it. Thanks to the antibiotics isoniazid and rifampicin, Mycobacterium tuberculosis has largely disappeared from developed countries (but not completely disappeared in the rest of the world).

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However, now they are returning and fully armed. We are seeing an alarming increase in the incidence of isoniazid and rifampicin resistant tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea, India, China and Russia. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis has been nicknamed "Ebola with wings." It spreads easily through coughing or sneezing, and your chances of surviving it - even with the best medical attention - are about 50%.

But this is not even the tip of the iceberg of the problem with antibiotic resistance. People continue to acquire a bacterial infection every year and 1% of them will inevitably die at best. Hospitals are teeming with E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which are resistant to carbapenems, our last line of defense by antibiotic forces.

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Still not worried? Here's another nefarious thought: some sexually transmitted diseases are caused by bacteria: syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, for example. Problems with gonorrhea due to antibiotic resistance have already arisen. Imagine if we have nothing to treat them?

Why can't we just invent new antibiotics?

It would seem that the answer to this question is simple, but it is not. The so-called "antibiotic pipeline" has long dried up as the pharmaceutical industry has found new, simpler and more lucrative markets like cancer and heart disease. Chemotherapy is much more expensive than a course of antibiotics, and a person will take drugs to lower cholesterol daily for ten to twenty years.

Every antibiotic currently in use is a derivative of antibiotics discovered before 1984. The topic of antibiotics requires serious science and presents an economic and legal challenge for pharmacists, so they abandon it.

What to do?

The most important thing is to stop the use of antibiotics for all but the most important cases. By using silver bullets completely thoughtlessly, we cut off our own future. Ear and urinary tract infections do not need antibiotic treatment in most cases (remember to discuss this with your doctor).

It's not just doctors that will have to change practice: patients themselves need to understand that antibiotics are not a panacea for all sneezes. The problem is that most respiratory illnesses - flu and colds - are caused by viruses, and antibiotics only kill bacteria.

There are also increasingly strong calls to phase out or at least significantly reduce the use of antibiotics in agriculture. The World Health Organization has called on the agricultural sector to look to alternatives such as immunization, improved hygiene and biosecurity to reduce the risk of infection in animals. Also, farmers should only give antibiotics to animals if bacterial infectious diseases develop.

Is there a better solution?

Rational prescription of antibiotic treatment and refusal to use them for any reason, of course, can bear fruit, but scientists are trying to find a more graceful way out of this ditch. But why reinvent the wheel when this world already has a mechanism that has sharpened teeth and knives for bacteria?

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Bacteriophages are viruses that kill bacteria; their name literally means "bacterieaters". But it is a little inaccurate: bacteriophages do not eat bacteria, but use them as a host. They multiply in bacteria and spread between them.

Bacteriophages were discovered back in 1915; and during World War II it was even used to treat gangrene. They are now being addressed again as a possible solution to the antibiotic crisis; scientists all over the world are trying to introduce these microscopic killers to human medicine.

We are also not giving up and trying to find new antibiotics. But this is the sword of Damocles: one day we will be deceived and broken, and all the antibiotics, in which we have invested so much time and effort, will cease to help us. This is an arms race that we will never win.

ILYA KHEL